Bengals Want to Shoot Stadium Birds

The Cincinnati Bengals have a long history of seeking favors and preferential treatment from local government officials, and now the team wants permission to shoot guns inside Paul Brown Stadium to kill pesky birds.

As part of the effort, Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding — who also serves as the Bengals' sales director — spent part of Wednesday pushing behind the scenes for quick approval from the city’s police and law departments, according to multiple City Hall sources.

The team wants an OK by today or Friday so it can prepare the stadium in time for the high-profile Oct. 1 game against the New England Patriots, which will be featured on ESPN's Monday Night Football.

Although Hamilton County owns the stadium, it’s located in downtown Cincinnati, and city law prohibits the firing of guns in public by civilians unless they’re acting in self-defense. The Bengals, however, are feeling threatened by a group of starlings that are flying around the open-air stadium during games.

Typically, city council members must excuse themselves from votes or actions involving their employers, as it constitutes a conflict of interest. Further, council members generally aren’t supposed to interact with department heads under the terms of Cincinnati’s charter but rather make all requests though the city manager — the only position at City Hall that is directly answerable to council.

At least formally, that’s what the Bengals have done. Eric J. Brown, the team’s managing director, sent a letter Friday to City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. seeking permission.

In his letter, Brown (who’s not related to team owner Mike Brown) wrote that the team wants to use air-actuated pellet rifles to shoot the birds, which the team misidentifies as “pigeons.”

“The issue we are having is with pigeon droppings falling on patrons during events at Paul Brown Stadium,” the letter says. “What we are proposing to alleviate this problem is to be able to have Paul Brown Stadium staff members that are familiar with firearms shoot the pigeons a few days prior to an event in the areas they are causing problems.

“This would be done discreetly during times when there is little activity in the stadium,” the letter continues. “The bird carcasses would be placed in black plastic bags and then be deposited into our on-site trash compactor.”

The stadium, which was built using $377.6 million in taxpayer money, opened in August 2000. It’s unclear if the birds posed a problem in the seven previous seasons and why the team didn’t seek an exemption earlier.

According to the Cincinnati Municipal Code, section 708-27 (a), “No person shall discharge any kind of firearm or dangerous weapon, including handguns, rifles, air rifles or air guns by whatever name known.”

Despite the restriction, city officials likely will approve the Bengals’ request, City Hall sources said. Police supervisors already have given their OK, and Dohoney probably will issue an exemption Friday.

— Kevin Osborne
(Photo: English-country-garden.com)

Comments

[Gerald Bengal Turding]

Let the birds shit on the Bengals the way the Bengals shit on the people of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Get the Berding out of City Hall!

[Balding]

Yeah shooting up the birdies should make Berding more popular with the city's voters. If this is what his advisors are telling him, maybe he needs to fire them and bring in his 8th campaign team this year.

[Howard Roark]

Please cite evidence to the contrary that the birds are starlings and not pigeons.

You've called into question their ability to accurately identify a pigeon versus a starling with no factual evidence.

"The Bengals, however, are feeling threatened by a group of starlings that are flying around the open-air stadium during games."

In his letter, Brown (who’s not related to team owner Mike Brown) wrote that the team wants to use air-actuated pellet rifles to shoot the birds, which the team misidentifies as “pigeons.”

[LeRoy]

Now I have one more reason NOT to vote for Buck Shot Berding.

[Breen]

If it's just "employees who have gun experience" they're looking for, they should get Chris Henry out there shootin' the damn birds. He's not doing anything right now anyway — might as well put him to work!

By the way, this news tidbit made the CNN scroll Saturday. Another embarrassing "what the hell?" news item from Cincinnati. And we wonder why the rest of the country looks at are town like it's a backwards podunk cesspool.